Helen's Angel
by: Angle Friend the Rev. William P. Neal

Saturday Ramblins, Vol. 1, No. 24 (November 14, 1998)

On Friday, the 26th of July, 1995, the Rev. John Diehl came down from Harrisburg to take me to lunch. He was to meet me at 12 o'clock at the front door of the nursing home where my wife, Helen, was a resident. I arrived there about 11:30 as I had a problem to discuss with both the nurse and the business office.

I stopped by the see Helen but she was asleep in a gerri chair on the sun porch. I stood observing her for a few minutes. A lady, who was lying in the gerri chair next to Helen, said, "She had a good morning". I thanked her and said that I wasn't going to wake Helen because I had to leave right away and because she would be upset by my leaving. The woman replied that she would tell Helen I had stopped to see her and would be back shortly. I again thanked her and left. While I waited for Father Diehl, I got to thinking about the lady with whom I had talked. She was a rather pretty lady, too young to be a patient, nicely dressed and appeared to have her full mental facilities. I had never seen her before and I was puzzled about her.

Father Diehl and I lingered over lunch doing a lot of talking. We arrived back at the nursing home just before two o'clock and went to Helen's room. At the door, I noticed that the curtain had been drawn around Helen's bed. A nurse beckoned for me to come to her. Quietly she told me that Helen had suddenly gone totally unresponsive.

I went to the bed and tried , without success, to rouse Helen. I could see that death was written all over her face. I left the room only long enough to telephone Nancy, telling her to come quickly. When I returned, there were two nurses by the bed. We stood there helpless to do anything, but wait for the end.

As Helen slipped out of this physical life, it was impossible to detect the exact moment. Both nurses tried mouth to mouth resuscitation but to no avail. Father Diehl gave her the last rites. The nurses on the floor kept saying, "Isn't it wonderful that he brought his priest with him." I sat by the bed with Helen and waited for Nancy to arrive.

During the two hours that I sat there, several of the nurses and staff stopped by. They were all shocked at the suddenness of Helen's death. I was stunned when Beth McMasters told me that she was with Helen at some musical event they were having, when the nurses came to take her back to the room for cauterization. Beth said that, within the hour prior to her death, Helen was singing Amazing Grace.

After the funeral I went back to the nursing home to meet the lady who was in the gerri chair beside Helen the day she died. The nurses were unable to recall seeing her and remarked that none of the patients out on the sun porch had the ability to talk as this lady had talked with me. No one could recall ever seeing a woman fitting the description I had given them. Our discussion left us with the conviction that it must have been one of Helen's angels beside her, and I am convinced that I had been given the privilege to see and speak with her.

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